The Transfer Tavern

Opinion: Gabriel Jesus is on the road to becoming Manchester City’s Wayne Rooney

Manchester City’s search for a new midfielder is likely to continue beyond this transfer window with no alternative for Jorginho lined up ahead of deadline day.

However, one area manager Pep Guardiola no doubt will be satisfied with is up front.

The Premier League champions recently announced on their official club website that Gabriel Jesus has signed a two-year contract extension, which will take his Etihad career into 2023.

In Jesus and Sergio Aguero, Guardiola possibly has the highest quality of striker depth in the Premier League, with the former set to lead the line for Manchester City for years to come.

The Citizens signed Jesus, who is valued at £72m by Transfermarkt, back in the summer of 2016 from Brazilian side Palmeiras although he did not link up with the squad until January 2017.

Since then, Jesus has go on to become a key figure in Guardiola’s team despite not always being the first name on the Spaniard’s team-sheet.

Injuries and the brilliant form of Aguero has seen Jesus, at times, reduced to a bench role.

However, the Brazil international was still pivotal in Manchester City’s title-winning campaign last season. He managed to make 29 Premier League appearances — even with the fierce competition of Aguero — in which he was able to score 13 goals.

Jesus also netted the winner in Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Southampton in the Premier League’s final round of fixtures, taking the Citizens’ point tally to an incredible 100.

With that in mind and, of course, including Jesus’ goal-scoring ability in general, it is not hard to see why Manchester City supporters have become so fond of the ex-Palmeiras player in such a short amount of time.

In Jesus, Manchester City could have their answer to Wayne Rooney.

While he may not possess the same level of talent and ability as Rooney did when he was a young centre-forward grabbing all the headlines, at 21, Jesus could be Manchester City’s no.1 striker for a decade — just like Rooney at Manchester United — and fire his team to more titles.